One March, partway through the Planning Board's review of the store, a Southampton Town building inspector named Marjorie Reilly answered a question about paint. In an email reported by The East Hampton Star, she concluded that the concrete bollards outside the future Target at Bridgehampton Commons, "painted red would be considered a sign." Painted gray, they "would not be considered a sign."
That ruling explains the store that opened this month on Montauk Highway. Target leased space in a shopping center that has held a discount chain since 1972, and much of the town's review that followed was about how much of the brand could show on the outside. That scrutiny reached further than most residents would expect, down to the bright red concrete spheres Target puts at nearly every entrance in the country.
A Ruling About Paint
The sign rules at Bridgehampton Commons were already strict before Target arrived. According to the Star's account of the Planning Board review, the store's sign had to be white letters and a logo on a gray background, and it could not be lit from inside. Its size had to fit a set ratio to the height of the facade. That left the bollards. One board member described them as "somewhere between an architectural element and a safety issue and signage," adding that "it is a marketing element, because it represents your brand." She suggested Target get a formal interpretation so the board would not "open up a can of worms."
Ken McQuade, an in-house architect for Target, offered to repaint them. When a board member suggested white, he pushed back gently. "Respectfully, white shows every scuff and every mark," he said, and proposed a "more neutral gray," which another member pointed out would match the sign. Reilly's email then made it formal. The color decided whether the object counted as a sign.
McQuade later explained the outcome to Newsday: "We agreed to make those gray because the town didn't want it to feel like there was too much branding, using too much red on the outside."
| Standard Target feature | Bridgehampton version | What shaped it |
|---|---|---|
| Red exterior lettering and bull's-eye | White letters and logo on gray | Commons signage rules |
| Internally lit sign | Lit from above | No internally lit signs at the Commons |
| Red concrete bollards | Gray bollards | Inspector's ruling that red would count as a sign |
| Standard parking field | Proposed: 10 drive-up stalls, six fewer regular spaces | Planning Board site plan review |
The Parts Nobody Required
The table covers what came out of the town's review. Much of what shoppers notice first came from Target. The company asked the Planning Board for a seating area beside the main entrance: half a dozen red Adirondack-style chairs among flowering bushes, under trellises. 27east reported that the company's attorney, Taylor Gonzalez, put it this way: "They don't want it to look like their cookie-cutter Targets."
The board was divided. Chairwoman Jacqui Lofaro called it "a lovely idea" but raised practical problems. "We have snowstorms — those sidewalks are cleared. And, certainly, in the summertime it's a collector of garbage." Dennis Finnerty, the board's longest-serving member, saw it differently. "People might actually be sitting out there drinking their coffee and might bump into a neighbor. It kind of softens the sterile nature of these big facades." Finnerty also noted that snow removal and cleanup are the job of the center's owner, Kimco, whatever the design.
The porch is there now. Chain Store Age describes a front porch with Adirondack chairs, native plants and trellises. Target told the publication that such elements are not typically allowed in front of a store, and that it explained to local leaders it wanted people "To slow down, stop and enjoy the moment."
Inside, the same theme continues. Each fitting room is designed as a beach cabana, with porthole windows on the doors and shutters. The custom wallpaper is a version of Hamptons toile with the Target mascot placed among local landmarks. There are wicker globe light shades, walnut benches, and waves stenciled onto the concrete floor. Newsday reported shake siding on several interior walls. The brick wall across the front was opened up with a row of glass windows. "The Hamptons has to have a certain feel," Genevieve McJilton, Target's senior project manager of construction, told Newsday, describing meetings with the town about signage.
So the town took the red off the outside of the building, and Target answered with a porch and shingles. The Planning Board's records show a negotiation about how a national brand should look in Bridgehampton, and both sides put something on the table.
Fifth Tenant, Same Box
That negotiation looks different once you know what the building has been. The Star traced the space back to the Plaza East Shopping Center, built in 1972. Before it opened, a group of local residents that included the writer Peter Matthiessen and the artist Saul Steinberg printed a petition in the Star. Calling themselves "Citizens Against the Shopping Center," they warned that the project would bring traffic, unfair competition for established merchants, and would "irreparably alter the visual quality of our countryside."
The center was built anyway, and the same large box has been filled by one discount chain after another:
- W.T. Grant, opened October 1972, gone after the chain's 1976 bankruptcy
- Woolco, owned by Woolworth, which moved in a few months after Grant's bankruptcy and stayed until the chain closed its U.S. stores in 1983
- Caldor, which arrived as Kimco expanded the property onto the former drive-in theater site, after more protests and legal challenges, and closed in May 1999
- Kmart, from 1999 to October 2024, by the end the last full-size Kmart in the continental United States
- Target, opened to the public in October 2026
That history changes how the gray sign reads. The fight over whether a big discount store belongs on this stretch of Montauk Highway took place more than 50 years ago. This time the town's attention went to the details: the sign's colors and size, the lighting, the parking layout, and the bollards. Matthiessen's group objected to the store being built at all. The Planning Board's questions for Target were about lighting, paint and what happens to a porch in a snowstorm.
What It Changes on an Ordinary Errand
For a household in Bridgehampton, Sagaponack or Sag Harbor, the practical change is distance. Before this store, the nearest Target was in Riverhead, 27east noted. The new store is about 90,000 square feet, with groceries, a Starbucks, drive-up and in-store order pickup, and same-day delivery. Target representatives told 27east it created about 140 jobs. According to Patch, the doors opened to the public at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, ahead of the official grand opening on Sunday, Oct. 11.
A few details matter for weekday planning:
- Hours. Target's store page lists 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
- Pharmacy. In early October, a Target spokeswoman told Newsday she expected the in-store CVS in early November. Target's store page already lists CVS pharmacy hours of 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2 to 7 p.m., so a quick call before a prescription run is sensible.
- Parking. Target's site plan proposed 10 drive-up stalls for order pickup at the cost of six regular spaces. Target's attorney at the time, Brian W. Kennedy, had a Kimco representative confirm there were "no parking issues" at the site. Lofaro was not persuaded and worried about the precedent for future tenants.
Store director Adriana Fitzpatrick described the store to 27east as "the perfect one-stop shop for busy residents and families in our community," with groceries, Starbucks coffee and CVS Pharmacy pickup under one roof.
The Commons' Other Anchor Changed Hands the Same Week
Target was not the only change at Bridgehampton Commons this month. On July 30, King Kullen announced that all 24 of its supermarkets, including the Bridgehampton store, would be bought by Giunta's Meat Farms, another family-owned Long Island grocery chain. Newsday reported that the deal closed on Friday, Oct. 2, four days before Target opened its doors at the other end of the center.
What happens to the name on the supermarket is still open. As of early October, the companies had not decided which locations would keep the King Kullen name and which would become Giunta's. The South Shore Press reported those decisions would come "in the coming months," that no closures or layoffs were expected, and that pharmacy departments would remain.
So both anchors at Bridgehampton Commons changed this October, one with a new tenant and one with a new owner. Southampton Town spent most of a year on the Target's sign, its paint colors and its parking. For now, the supermarket at the other end of the center still has its old name over the door, and its new owner has not yet said whether it will change.
The Target review showed how much the details can matter in Southampton Town: a sign's background color, how it is lit, and whether a bollard counts as signage. The same kind of review applies to estates, acreage and development parcels across the East End, where the details decide what a property can become. If you are weighing a property or project that will go through Southampton Town review, Heskell Advisors can walk you through it. Schedule a confidential market consultation.
